1. .IN Relaunching and Implementation 26 April 2005 Dr. Govind/ K.B. Narayanan Department of Information Technology Government of India govind@mit.gov.ingovind@mit.gov.in, kbn@mit.gov.in

2. Agenda History Goals of the re-launch Process Sunrise Landrush On-going operations Learnings Current challenges

3. .IN History – 1992-2004 Opened in 1992 Managed by National Centre for Software Development (NCST), then by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Restrictive eligibility requirements Registry and Registrar functions combined in one Manual and lengthy registration process About 6600 names in the database (despite population base of over 1B) Low growth; not meeting potential

4. Goals of the re-launch “10 point agenda” announced in May, 2004 by Union Minister of Communications and IT : Dayanidhi Maran #5: “…bring about improvement in Indian Internet Domain Name with a greater market focus…” Number of.IN registrations should reflect the advance of IT in India Bring in policy changes to set up a liberal, market friendly and state of the art Registry Services Establish.IN as a major modern domain-a virtual India on the Internet

5. Process & timetable New.IN Internet Domain Name policy announced during October, 2004 Afilias India selected as Technical partner on 20 th December,04

6. Key changes 2 nd level domains available on an unlimited basis 3 rd levels in co.in/net.in/org.in also opened to all registrants Registry exits retail; separate registrar level created Pricing to registrars reduced from Rs750(~$17.00) to: 2 nd level: Rs. 500 (about US$11.00) 3 rd level: Rs. 250 (about US$5.50) Registrations taken online, and effective within 24 hours of application A “Sunrise” to protect intellectual property Dispute process adopted A category of Reserved Names established Registry retains authority to protect sovereign interests and public order

7. Sunrise 1-21 January 2005 Indian trademarks only Over 4200 Applications received

8. Landrush 16 February 2005 Unlimited registrations open to the public Real time-online access 18 Registrars accredited (.in, co.in, net.in, org.in, gen.in, firm.in, ind.in) Plus ERNET (res.in, edu.in, ac.in), NIC-National Informatics Centre (gov.in), and Ministry of Defence (mil.in) Aggressive marketing through PR agency 45,745 registrations in the first 24 hours Steady demand since the initial rush

9. On going operations Over 100,000 registrations New registrars accredited regularly—now over 25 73% 2LDs / 27% 3LDs in post-landrush.IN Growth—2005 0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000 80000 90000 100000 Week 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6Week 7Week 8Week 9 Week 10Week 11Week 12 SunriseLandrush

10. Current Challenges Completing Sunrise domain names IDN launches (18 official languages in India) Hindi and Tamil to begin with Building the local registrar base Stimulating domain usage and subsequent renewal

11. Questions? Contact: Dr. Govind govind@mit.gov.in www.registry.in